Choyo inkstick ( Faint Bluish black, 長葉 )

Choyo takes its name from Cho (長), long, and Yo (葉), leaf, its mold a design carried down from the Edo period.

It's made by extracting and blending rapeseed oil smoke with a plant-derived pigment chosen specifically for blue ink, resulting in a calm, restrained black.

Natural indigo is worked in as well, holding the color back from tipping into anything too extreme in either direction — a quietly balanced ink rather than a dramatic one.

It comes in two sizes, 1.5 at 24×84×10mm, 25g, and 3.0 at 24×100×14mm, 45g, so you can choose between a lighter stick for practice or a larger one for more ambitious work.

For painters who want a black with real restraint and a design lineage reaching back centuries, Choyo is a quietly historic choice.